Mark Mori & Bettie Page

What makes this film exciting is Bettie’s personal involvement. She was very choosy about who she shared with, who she told her story to. This movie goes a step further as she takes on the role of the narrator – it’s her voice telling her story.

The man behind this project is Mark Mori. Since 2011 we’ve watched as he has put in countless hours to get this project completed and into theaters nationwide. Limited release began earlier this year, with a wide release rolling out in 2014.

Mori chatted with us about how the project first came to be, and further proved to be the warm individual that we’ve long known him to be.

“Back in the late 90’s, I really didn’t know who Bettie was. I kind of recognized her image, but didn’t really know her name.”

Mori’s entertainment attorney brought him a copy of ‘Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-up Legend‘ before it was published. “I looked through the book and saw the photographs and was taken with Bettie.”

“I was able to be introduced to Bettie and got to know her – had lunches with her. I just thought it would be nice for a documentary.”

Mori isn’t new to the world of documentaries. “I had been, really, a political activist. I eventually saw filmmaking as another form of political activism. All of my films prior to the Bettie film were political.”

“The first film I made was about a nuclear weapons factory, and that one got an academy award nomination. I co-produced a film about the Los Angeles riots. I produced a film about censorship of Sally Mann’s nude photographs of her children. So that is how I got into film making. It was sort of a way to mobilize people politically around issues that I thought were important.”

“I think that there has been a political/social component to the Bettie film about sexual identity and sex liberation, issues of sexual repression, and that sort of thing,” Mori replies when asked if he sees this film as an extension of his previous work.

So what is next for Mori? “I am doing a bunch of TV shows now – as far as another feature documentary. People are throwing ideas my way but I haven’t settled on anything yet. I am still focused on getting this film out to the world.”

But here is the thing that floored me. With as many people as Mori deals with on a daily basis, he was grateful for our involvement and support of the movie. When we asked about the movie’s gradual growth into being a force on the indie circuit he was quick to thank all the supporters along the way. “That’s to do with a lot of people like you guys who have been with us all along and have supported it. We are going to try to leverage all of that with success in theaters. And really the goal is to bring it to an audience who don’t know Bettie Page.”